Thad Matta, Ohio State head coachOn Kent State “To the credit of Kent State they came out ready to play tonight. They had us on our heels for the first 16 minutes of the game.”

On Ohio State “I think that it was very good for this team to face some adversity. It was good see some players step up and I know David Lighty hit some big shots for us and other as well.”

On the tournament “I am very excited to get out of here 3-0. I think that we can definitely play better and we will go back and look at the tapes and we will play better.”

Ron Lewis, senior guardOn what his team learned this weekend “We learned not to quit. We need to keep fighting to get the win. It doesn’t matter who we play, we can’t stop playing. We need to get going from the start.”

On being named the tournaments most valuable player “I really just played basketball. I think the MVP is overrated. This is a team game. I guess somebody has to win the trophy, but it should go to the team.”

Jamar Butler, junior guardOn what Ohio State needs to do to be successful “We need to play defense and listen to the coaches. If we do those things, we can win a lot of basketball games.”

Jim Christian, Kent State head coachOn Kent State veterans “I don’t know if they were too excited to play against Ohio State but they weren’t good in rhythm. Are veterans we count on and they never got the rhythm. It hurt us.”

On Kent State “I’m excited for this team. I feel we played hard all three nights and I’m trying not to dwell on this game. It was good to get exposure and get guys the minutes. It was a great experience for us.”

On falling behind in the game “For us it was once they got involved on the backboard. The second half we were away from the game like deer in headlights. You can’t let Ohio State run away like that and we came apart. They did a great job taking advantage of this.”